Scatter Island (Rewrite)
by Tatayla
Summary: This is the cleaned up version, for better reading, of my older fanfiction: "Scatter Island". This fanfiction throws the Straw-hats into all sorts of horror themed situations. And it will get bloody and morbid. Later chapters will be rated M, if not R. I will put warnings on chapters, when I feel it's needed.
1. Chapter 1 Dead Mortis Part One

**UPDATED A/N: I'm "re-writing" this fic. Technically, just cleaning it up. That way, you readers can read it better. I can write properly; I'm just a little slap post happy. I'm a disgusting shame, I know. I tend to throw my ideas down and post. POST. No looking! Knowing it's messy and wrong. JUST POST...post. I'm now realizing, "post", is a funny word. **

**post **

**ORIGINAL A/N: Making sure your eyes read the title as **_**"Scatter Island" **_**not **_**"Shutter Island". **_**What you are about to read is placing the characters into series of horror events (and it won't just be about zombies and ghosts) so it's probably going to end up bouncing you all over the place. Hence the title I clarified one sentence ago. *sigh* It's probably going to give you a headache more than anyth-and you just hit the back button. Well you know what!?...It is a sexy button. **

**WARNINGS: For language, violence, gore, sexual themes (giggity)...*cough*, crappiness, spur of the moment bulldonkey plot writing, and it's a fan fiction. (Need I say more?)**

**NO PAIRINGS. Well sort of...maybe...shut up...I'm indecisive. **

**CHAPTER ONE: All Who Enter**

**Dead Mortis Part One**

It was dark now. Dark and quiet. A dramatic difference from the unusual _but_ usual climate change that occurs on this odd sea. The sky went from bright to gloomy with low hanging dark clouds and a mist that slightly obscured one's vision.

The air itself changed from crisp to clammy, due to the humidity that seemed to tighten the breath of anyone breathing.

This dramatic change occurred fast and unexpectedly, just barely a moment ago.

It at first seemed like a cataclysm erupted upon the world, but it just as fast went silent and eerie.

The Thousand Sunny was at a dead stop with the crew-members sprawled out on deck. The navigator began to raise herself up now.

"What was that?" she asked, still shook up from the earlier eruption.

"I...I don't know," Luffy replied shaking the dizziness off. He gazed ahead of the ship and his eyes began to widen.

"Whoa," he gasped,"That is spooky."

The other crew members stood and gazed ahead as well.

Just as Luffy, their eyes widen, and the majority of them dropped their jaws.

In front of them, and the ship, was a large dark island.

The appearance of it could be described as foreboding and depressing.

It practically screamed horror.

"Another Thriller Bark?" Luffy wondered.

"No," his skeletal comrade replied,"I might just be scared, but this feels much more formidable in frightfulness than Thriller Bark. I can feel it in my bones..."

Before Brook could make a skull joke of that, Nami interrupted.

"Luffy, I agree," she said, as she held her hands near her chest in fear. "I don't like this feeling either. Let's just pretend we didn't see this island and turn around."

Now it was her turn to be interrupted by Usopp's scared gasp.

"Th-tha-that no-not possible," he stuttered. He was leaning over a side rail, eyes gazing behind the ship.

The crew's attention was drawn to what Usopp was stuttering about.

Their mouths dropped even more than they did upon seeing the island.

The cyborg was the first to voice the shock.

"WHAT IN THE HELL?!" he yelled.

Behind the ship was a wall of nothingness.

The ocean they were just sailing on was gone. Instead there was a drop off that the ship was dangerously near.

The Thousand Sunny didn't move, for the water was absolutely still.

It appeared like it was gushing a waterfall down the drop off into the abyss, but it all was petrified in place.

Nobody could say a word now. They too were frozen.

Eventually Chopper's fearful chattering was heard.

"What's going on?" he tearfully asked. "I''m scared! What's going on?!" he continued to cry.

"Calm down, Chopper," Zoro sighed as he tried to get the reindeer to stop getting over emotional. "Going into panic isn't going to help the situation."

"How are we going to leave?!" Chopper's cries continued more.

"Well, we can jump off the ledge and see where that takes us," Zoro calmly explained.

"THAT'S SUICIDE!" the doctor cried even louder,"It's all gone! It looks like a bottomless pit!"

"Then how is that suicide?" Zoro questioned. "If nothings really there, then we got nothing to splat against."

"Just shut up, Zoro!" Nami scowled.

"Okay,...then we can go on the island," the swordsman chuckled, as if he was enjoying this.

"Will you stop it?!" the navigator shouted. She was getting more frustrated and scared.

"Stop scaring Nami, asshole!" Sanji defended the girl.

"Then you tell her where to go," Zoro spat. He waved a hand, signally he was done with this conversation. Sanji, however, looked ready to debate on this with him. Physically.

The cyborg pounded his large fist on the railing and he shouted at them.

"Knock it off!" he demanded,"Fighting is no better than panicking! I'm in no mood this week!"

"How do you explain this?" Usopp stared at this phenomenon and trembled.

He looked to the always leveled headed and always smart archeologist.

"Robin, you're smart. Have you ever studied something like this?"

"No," she stated flatly,"I've never seen nor heard about anything like this. It's quite intriguing."

Luffy, meanwhile, had been switching his gaze from the nothingness to the island. His expression giving him the look of someone in deep thought.

"Well, we definitely only have one way to go," he finally spoke,"...but we are too far from the island to dock ,and we're not moving."

It was an obvious statement, but at least obviously right.

"Luffy-san's right," Brook finally chimed in. "Sunny-chan looks petrified in place, like the water."

Franky took a look over the railing at the water.

"Well at this rate, if we're going to the island, then it looks like we'd have to swim it," he explained. He then looked harder at the water.

"Or...wait a minute."

He suddenly bounded over the railing and landed on the water like it was solid ground.

"Whoa! Awesome!" Luffy exclaimed. "How did you do that?!"

Franky tapped his foot on the water and walked a little farther out. "I don't know. It's just like this," he replied.

"Is it ice?" the captain questioned.

"No, it's freaky is what it is," the cyborg replied back again.

Luffy now jumped off the ship and landed on the water, joining his cyborg companion.

"Wow! This is cool!" he cheered. He jumped up and down on the ocean. "We've got to see what else this island has!"

His navigator slapped her hand on the railing of the ship.

"Luffy look behind us! Aren't you the least bit concerned about all this?!" Nami asked.

"Are you looking behind us?" he mocked. "There's literally nothing there, so maybe there's something on the island that makes it all normal again."

The remaining crew on the ship took another moment to look at their surroundings again.

Robin placed her hand on Nami's shoulder.

"Sorry, but either way you look at this, we don't have much of a choice," she explained.

Nami simply sighed.

"Come on, guys! Let's get going!" Luffy ordered, as he was already starting to walk towards the island.

"W-wait!" Nami called after,"At least let us get some supplies packed! Just in case, okay?!"

"Fine!" Luffy slouched.

Nami, Robin, and Chopper packed up their backpacks with basic supplies, before disembarking with the rest of the crew towards the eeire island.

They walked, some of them cautiously, on the odd water for about five minutes before reaching the shore.

"It's definitely more scary up close," Chopper whimpered.

"Doesn't it remind you of Thriller Bark?" Luffy asked like it was a memory of a picnic.

"That's my point," the doctor whined.

"If you ask me," Robin added,"I say there's something darker about this one."

"M-more evil?!" Chopper shrieked in response.

"Shut up, Chopper! She's only joking," Zoro again tried to get the reindeer to stop spazzing out.

They walked a little further to what looked like a path, though it was quite covered in dead tree branches and fog.

There was; however, a sign greeting them at the path's start.

It was made out of metal and supported underneath by a small, stone wall-like stand.

"Welcome to Hope's Hollow," Nami read it aloud almost apathetically.

"That sounds promising," Usopp sarcastically mumbled.

"At least we know there is life here," Sanji added a positive view.

"Well down the path then!" Luffy urged on.

They started the walk, stepping over the dead limbs and straining to see up ahead.

"Nami! I'll carry you so you don't have to exhaust yourself stepping over these!" Sanji offered.

"No thanks, I'll manage," she replied, not at all interested.

His offer failed with Robin as well, so they continued to walk down the path. It seemed to stretch on forever and grow more intimadating as they went.

A sudden foul smell hit like a wave.

"Ergh! That smell! It's horrible!" Chopper complained as he stumbled back and covered his nose.

"Yeah, I smell it too," Nami agreed. Even Luffy crinkled his nose.

"Gross!" the captain sniffed,"It smelled like something died!...Oh, no offense, Brook. For the record, you don't smell dead at all." He stated, apologized, and complimented all in one.

"Yohoho," Brook laughed,"no offense taken...,and thank you?" The skeleton took the compliment for the best.

Again they pushed forward, trying their best to ignore the smell.

But then came the noise.

At first it was faint, but started to grow loud.

It was very similar to how the cries of cicadas sound, but soon grew to a much more frightening screech.

It now sounded like a mix of cicadas and the horrid screams of children, as it grew to the thousands.

The Straw Hats covered their ears-Brook included- and started to huddle closer together.

"Aaah! What is that?!" Nami cried, and she started to visibly tear up. "This is too scary! I want to go back!"

They frantically searched the tree line for what was causing the noise. The misty fog was hindering their sight, and the noise only seemed to close in on them.

"I can't stand this!" Usopp snapped,"It's horrible! What should we do?!"

"There's something up ahead!" Luffy pointed, but quickly put his hands back over his ears.

He motioned with his elbow for his crew to follow and so they did, sprinting closely behind him.

Though the destination was very close, it seemed like it was taking forever to get to it. The noise chasing right on their heels.

The shadowy shapes ahead began to surface from the misty fog and revealed itself to be a town, surrounded by a moss covered stone wall.

Luffy slowed himself to a stop at the entrance; His crew right by him. As they stopped, so did the noise.

It died down to silence, excluding the panting from the crew.

Chopper put a hoof to his heart and exhaled heavily.

"I'm going to throw up," he heaved,"I don't like this at all."

"No argument here," Nami agreed. She shifted her eyes to the arc sign over the stone wall's entrance.

It consisted of two words with the first word hovering over the other.

"Mortis Dead."

She read it like she had read the sign at the start of the path.

They stared at the sign and then at the obviously creepy town.

"Hmm," Usopp hummed. "Welp, I'm going back."

He turned to leave, but Zoro grabbed his arm and yanked him back.

"I don't want to hear that annoying sound again," he growled.

And so they stepped into the town trying to find any sign of life that wasn't as foreboding as the signs, or any clue as to how to change this phenomenon.

"There's somebody," Robin spoke up. She had seen a battered woman digging around at a food stand.

"She's right," Luffy nodded. He also saw her. "HEY, LADY! Can you help us?!"

The woman jerked around with an arm load of food cans. She looked terrified at the sight of them ,but then turned angry at Luffy's shouting.

"Sh-shut up!" she quietly yelled back as she threw a can at him.

"We just want to ask a question," Luffy explained, but the woman wouldn't have it.

"Shut up! Get away from here ,you idiots, and stop making noise to attract them!" she warned.

Luffy stepped a little closer to her. "But...what?" he was confused.

The woman seemed a bit confused herself. "No! These are my supplies!" she now turned frantic and ran off, without elaborating them.

"Things are not getting any less disturbing," Sanji commented.

"I wonder what she meant by attract," Usopp worried.

"Maybe some huge flesh eating monster," Robin bluntly answered.

"Robin!" Usopp whined at her morbid thoughts.

"Shouting like that,...you might attract it," she now seemed to be somewhat teasing. Usopp now took up shelter near Luffy.

"Hey don't attract it to me," the captain laughed, but he quickly snapped his attention to the sound of something crashing.

"What was that?" the sniper asked in his scared squeaky voice.

"It came from that alleyway over there," Brook pointed. They stared at it for a second before Luffy decided to see what was in there.

"Stay behind me guys. I'll check it out," he said.

"Be careful, Luffy," Usopp warned, still somewhat squeaking.

"I'll be fine," Luffy replied confidently.

He peeked around the corner to see a man leaned up against a garbage dumpster holding his bloody and torn arm.

"Are you alright?!" Luffy asked. He was about to try and help the man, but was abruptly stopped.

"STAY AWAY FROM ME!" the man yelled.

"I was going to help you!" Luffy defended.

"I know that!" the man replied,"That's why you need to get away from me! Go! Now!"

"But..," Luffy was interrupted by a scream in the distance.

"Now it sounds like that lady!" Sanji listened. "Luffy, I'm going to go see if she's okay."

The cook ran off towards the screams, as Luffy took one more moment to decide that the guy would probably be alright, albiet with a torn arm.

He and the rest of the crew caught up to Sanji. All of them trying to find the woman.

Her screams grew more intense, as if something was tearing her apart, and the crew was having a hard time tracking where she was. It was because of the maze of buildings.

When they thought they were close to her, the screams stopped.

"Now what?" Luffy panted,"How are we-" He stopped when he heard now another new noise replacing her screams.

It was an odd noise. Almost like someone was chewing on something squishy ,but crunchy, at the same time. It followed by soft mulitple grunts.

"It's around that corner," Luffy whispered. He pointed down at the end of the side walk that wrapped around a general store.

They spun around the corner, without really thinking, and froze in their places. Their eyes suddenly locked on a horrible sight.

A select few of them trying to hold the vomit down at the very sight of this disgust.

In front of them were what appeared to be five people, bloody and torn, huddled up on one target.

It was the lady they had ran into earlier.

They were feasting on her.

Luffy and the others were stunned, like poor defenseless animals caught by a ray of light.

Nami finally found enough emotion to gasp, which undoubtedly alerted the attackers.

Their attention snapped-along with some of their own bones-to the crew.

Their empty eyes, blank as they may be, sized up their new targets.

It was decided, with the one dropping the lady in favor of the next meal, that they would attack immediately.

The disgusting people sprang towards them. They made horrible hissing and gurgling noises.

Luffy didn't falter and sprang towards them as well. He shot a fist at them, which they hungrily grabbed.

"Don't let them bite you!" Nami yelled, causing Luffy yanked his arm back.

"Wait," he said,"I'm rubber..I don't have to worry about that. Their teeth aren't sharp enough."

An attacker had now got in Luffy's face and hissed, showing it's razor sharp pointed teeth.

It was like it was there just for that sort of occasion.

"Ok, I'm kicking your ass for the timing," the teen snarled.

He was able to knock that one back, but was now distracted by his own crew.

"Luffy! Behind us!" Sanji called.

Luffy turned around and saw numerous others trying to surround them.

As he was distracted, he got tackled by the ones he turned his back on.

The cook quickly kicked them off of his captain, but only to have one of them refuse to let go of his leg.

It was Franky's turn to now lend a helping hand, as he punched the stubborn creature off Sanji.

"Stand back guys," Franky recommended. He took a deep breath and spit out a wall of fire.

It seemed effective, at first, until the attackers proved more invulnerable than they thought.

They emerged from the wall of fire, and even though they were covered in flames, they still lunged foward.

"We're too out numbered, and I left my Clima-tact on the ship!" Nami yelled. "I'm too scared! We should just run for cover!"

Which she attempted. Zoro just missing grabbing her.

"Wait! Nami! Don't just run off yet!" he warned.

It was too late.

She let her fear sink in, and she bailed.

"Nami wait!" Sanji called after her, and then ran after her.

The attackers began to swarm in.

"Damn it!" Zoro yelled. "Screw it! Come on guys!"

The rest of them began to flee, but didn't realize that Usopp and Chopper were too terrified to move.

"Usopp! Chopper!" Luffy called, but they didn't respond, even as they were getting dangerously close to being tackled by the creatures.

Robin used her powers to sprout hands near Chopper, and shoved him back. She then rolled him close enough to her to pick him up and run, whereas Luffy stretched his arm and grabbed Usopp to drag him along.

They ran fast to where ever they thought they were going. They darted through alleyways, trying to lose their pursuers. When they finally came upon the start of the town again, it seemed clear of danger.

They surely thought they had lost the attackers by now, but then they suddenly heard distorted breathing.

It was the man that Luffy wanted to help earlier.

He was standing a few feet away with his body dead still.

He was staring very intently in their direction, and his eyes looked like one of _them. _

That's when he made a very strange but loud gurgling noise, and within a few seconds, it was realized that he had alerted the others.

Within just a few more seconds, the creatures disgusting noises could be heard heading for them.

The Straw Hats weren't quite near the entrance of the town to run out, so they instead ran inside a building. This particular one looked like it could be a good barricade.

Once all of them were inside, Luffy and Zoro slammed the large doors shut.

It almost seemed like doors shut themselves.

The stranger part of it; The doors didn't have any sort of lock on them, nor did they have time to block it.

However, when the attackers slammed into it, it didn't budge.

The doors had stained glass in them that the attackers couldn't, very surprisingly, seem to break.

Once Luffy's crew realized this, they took the moment to catch their breaths.

Even with the attackers outside it seemed quiet again.

The quietness was short lived, as Zoro decided to voice his anger.

"What the hell was that, Nami?!" he yelled. "Why the hell did we run?!"

"I...I don't know!" she defended herself,"Everything is happening too fast! I was scared!"

She pointed defiantly at him."You didn't have to listen!"

"Yeah, and if you ran alone, they would have caught you! " he roared,"And why did you leave your weapon on the ship, when you of all people should of felt the need to protect yourself. Especially on an island like this!"

"Stop yelling at Nami! She was scared!" Sanji protected her.

"Of what?!" Zoro fumed,"They look like zombies. We dealt with zombies at Thriller Bark. Not that scary!"

"This isn't Thriller Bark!" Nami now seemed angrier than he. "Those are the _real_ zombies!" she exclaimed. "The ones that don't reason or have salt as a weakness!"

"I'm sure my swords can work just as effective!" Zoro retaliated.

As the argument continued, Robin seemed to notice something.

There was a table near by with a few empty cups and plates on it.

She thought she saw one of the cups slide a bit on its own.

At the same moment, Brook was looking over at a line of cabinets on the nearby wall. He swore he just saw one of the cabinet's doors swing open a bit.

Luffy was concentrated on the argument and decided to stop it.

"Guys! Shut up already!" he ordered. "Let's just not freak out this time and kick their asses, alright?."

"Uh, Luffy, I don't think that's a great idea at the moment," Usopp chimed in,"If we open the doors now, then they'll just swarm in."

"You can blame Nami for that," Zoro smirked,"but don't worry. We can knock them back and have them down in no time. Just like Nami said, they are not Thriller Bark zombies. Nothing special about them. Just normal zombies."

"Then you guys ready?" Luffy asked as Zoro, Franky, Sanji, and Robin stood near the door with him.

Even Brook seemed ready to fight, though he stood a bit back, out of fear. Usopp hid behind him.

The sniper was nervously getting his weapons ready.

Nami and Chopper were just huddled in the very back.

"Alright," Luffy grinned,"Let's do this."

The door didn't budge.

They didn't expect it,even though the door already had proven to be strange.

"What the?" the captain seemed baffled,"Um...guys...are we locked in?"

He even kicked it and still nothing, so he turned around towards his crew.

"Is it possible for the zombies to lock it from the outside?" he asked, pouting at his defeat from a door.

"I don't think so," Zoro replied.

Luffy crossed his arms. "Then this door is freakishly stro-Hey...That cup just moved."

He had apparently seen it move like Robin thought it did.

"I thought I saw it do that a moment ago," she explained.

"Then I must not be crazy when I saw that cabinet door move," Brook added.

"Huh? On it's own?" Usopp asked,"You mean like a gh-."

He didn't get to finish the sentence before every dish on the table flew off.

Every cabinet door opening and slamming shut as loud as possible.

They all jumped from the sudden commotion.

"No! No! No! I don't want to be right!" Usopp screamed, as he now ran towards the front to get away from the back.

"That was kind of cool!" Luffy exclaimed.

Robin also seemed a bit intrigued by it. "Might this be an actual ghost?" she pondered.

Their attention was now drawing back to the door, when they heard scratching noises coming from it.

Their eyes widen when they saw it was being scratched from the inside, by what must be the 'ghost'.

The scratches were writing something that stretched across the door, even the windows.

"This can't be good," Franky sighed, as the scratching stopped.

It seemed that they were stuck in here for a reason. A twisted reason.

The scratches on the door read: "Tour the house. Your deaths will be more beautiful in here."

**ORIGINAL A/N: I know this chapter moved too fast, but this story is just something I'm doing for my own entertainment, really. **

**I know I said it at the start, but no, this is not just going to be a zombie/ghost story. Not all the way through, anyway. I did at least plan something else to add in here. **

**(UPDATED A/N: .. ... post.) **


	2. Chapter 2 Dead Mortis Part Two

**Chapter 2: Within the House Without a Heartbeat**

**Dead Mortis Part Two**

The crew stared at the carved words, as if it was going to spring from the door at them.

"That's so freaky...," Luffy commented. Nami was going to agree, but the captain added a not-so-worried comment to his first one.

"...And awesome!" he laughed.

The navigator exhaled and placed a hand to her forehead.

Robin simply giggled.

"Well if there is a ghost in here," she smiled,"...I doubt they are going to have an easy time scaring _him_."

Usopp let out a sigh of relief. He threw his hands up, in a carefree manner.

"Ah, that's right," he spoke with regained bravery,"Just a ghost. _Real_ ghost can't really harm you. Just make scary noises."

He began to walk about the group like a leading soldier, ready to encourage his comrades to battle.

"I admit they really can be scary," he spoke with confidence," but thinking about it,...bah,...nothing. Besides, we hang out with a dead guy! No offense, Brook."

"None taken," the skeleton replied to offenses a second time that day.

Usopp then turned toward the door, a grin of fighting pride stretching across his face.

"See! It's proof right here," Usopp pointed,"All it could do is throw a few dishes, slam a few cabinets, and scratch this door. Thinking about it, it's not that creepy, when it can't actually harm _you_."

He touched the scratches on the door.

Suddenly, an eerie glow to them surfaced.

"AAOW!" he yelped in pain. His fingertips suddenly felt like they were on fire. He yanked his hand back and regained his fear.

"Uh...ugh...I c-could be wrong. Ghost are demons. Let's get out of here?" he pleaded, holding his injured hand up as reasoning.

Robin calmly examined his hand; The corners of her mouth raised just a bit.

"A ghost that can cause physical damage?," She calmly studied,"Perhaps it _is_ a demon."

"Why do you say it so calm?!" Usopp snapped,"Are you enjoying it in here?! You're smiling!"

Robin tilted her head slightly and continued her morbid replies.

"So you _do_ want to go outside with the flesh eating monsters," she asked, keeping her calm demeanor.

"Will you stop it?!" Usopp cried.

As soon as he finished the sentence, another series of heard, but not seen, noises erupted.

This time, it had voice.

What sounded like millions of voices to be precise. All of them high pitched and mocking Usopp.

"**Stop it! Stop it! WILL YOU STOP IT! STOP IT! STOP IT! STOP IT! STOP IT! STOOOOP IT! STOP IT!" **

All the voices sounded like they were piling on top of each other, and like the cicada noises, it only grew louder and louder.

It continued to repeat the same thing over and over, before finally deciding to cease.

Ending itself in a final eerie whisper: "_Beautiful..."._

The crew uncovered their ears. They looked at each other in, once again, a confused and silent manner.

The cook being the first to break the silence this time.

"What...the hell...was that?" Sanji asked.

No one could properly answer it.

"D-D-Demon!" Chopper cried. He was now bear hugging Nami.

Nami, teary eyed and trembling, started to complain of their current situation, "I really d-don't like-huh?" She stopped when she felt something.

She looked down at her foot.

"What's wrong?" Robin asked.

"It feels like something has grabbed-ah!"

She couldn't finish the sentence.

She was suddenly jerked by her ankle,...by this unseen thing.

She was on her back, still clinging to Chopper, as her leg was hovering in the air.

A door on the side wall of the room swung open, and Nami knew to feel very uneasy about it.

"Guys," she muttered,"Don't let it..."

She was suddenly being dragged towards the door.

"Kyaaaaaah! Help! Please! Get it!" Nami screamed. She squeezed tighter to Chopper, and she tried to use her other foot as a stop.

Chopper was trying to dig his hooves into the ground as a stop, too.

Neither of their efforts worked.

Before anyone could really react, the two were dragged beyond the door. It was too fast for them.

It had slammed shut to prevent the others from coming in.

"Nami! Chopper!" Luffy shouted angrily, as he tried to open the door, but it was no use.

He then tried to force it open, but still no use. Nobody's strength seemed to apply inside this house.

"Damn it! This stupid place!" the teen continued to yell,"Nami! Chopper! Can you hear me?!"

No response.

Luffy couldn't hear a thing beyond the door.

As soon as it had slammed, the screams of Nami and Chopper were cut off.

The captain pounded on the door, in hopes that he'd hear some kind of response.

And there was a response this time!

Unfortunately, not from his friends.

There was a door on the opposite wall of the room, and it now swung open.

They all slowly looked over at it.

Each of them, unspoken, could feel the open door urging them in.

Now scratches were beginning to appear on the wall next to it.

The words it wrote, had the same eerie glow as the ones on the entrance door.

What this one read:

"**Life is a labyrinth"**

An arrow scratched itself under the words, further urging them in.

Luffy stomped over to this wall and slammed his fist on top of the words.

A burning hiss was heard on his skin, but Luffy didn't pull his fist back.

"What is this suppose to even mean?!" he growled,"Just tell us how to get Nami and Chopper back!"

The arrow's glow brightened and the words burned more.

Luffy removed his fist from the wall.

"Alright," he mumbled,"Come on guys."

He, along with his remaining crew-members, walked through the door and into the darkness.

As soon as the last one walked in, the door not-so-surprisingly shut on them.

It was pitch black, for just a moment, before a dim light lit up their way.

It seemed to emit from no where, but at least they could see now.

The door they walked through; however, just led them into a confusing maze of hallways, lined with hundreds of doors.

The wide hallway they stood in now, continued down a bit before splitting every which way into many different hallways.

Some were dead ends, some twisted around a corner, one even twisted up at the end, while another was just twisted around and around in a loop. And there were many many other strange hallways.

The cyborg was impressed with the structure.

"How are these physics even possible?" Franky arched his eyebrows.

Usopp heaved from exhaustion, simply by looking at all the running around that would ensue.

"Where do we even start?" the sniper sulked.

Zoro began to walk ahead of everyone. He turned and questioned his captain.

"Should we split up?" he asked. Usopp, of course, stepped in front of Luffy. He wasn't going to give him the chance to reply.

"NO!" the sniper snapped.

"What? Are you too scared?" Zoro huffed, giving the sniper's nose a flick.

"Ummm, that too," Usopp replied, darting his eyes away. He was trying to hold his tongue.

"That too?" Zoro tilted his head,"What are...HEY! Wait a minute! You were actually worried about me getting lost first!"

He was insulted by this constant accusation on his directional abilities.

"Well," Usopp laughed nervously," I think we'd all get lost in here, if that makes you feel any better."

Zoro suddenly had the boy in a headlock, flicking his nose repeatedly. The cook had to pull them apart, since Luffy was too busy laughing.

"Let's be serious now," Sanji intervened,"_Where_ do we start?"

After a moment of nothing but shrugs, they started walking forward.

They opened each door in order along the way, only to reveal each room to be completely empty.

They continued this tedious act, until the unseen force struck again.

"Hm?" Brook suddenly stopped, as if something forced him too.

His arm was slightly pulled back. It appeared like someone was holding onto it.

He tried to tug it forward, but it was tugging back.

"Uh...oh." The skeleton started to get nervous.

"Brook?" Luffy noticed.

The rest of the crew noticing now, too.

"L-Luffy-saAAH!"

Brook was suddenly being pulled back towards one of the previous rooms.

"Brook!"

The crew started to go after their comrade.

It turned more chaotic. Robin was also grabbed.

She was being dragged to a room down the twisting hallway, in the opposite direction.

Sanji skidded to a stop and tried to go after her instead.

"Robin-chan!"

He tried to run down the twisting hallway after her, but could not get a good balance on its floor.

Franky had also turned around to help Robin.

He shot his hand forward to try and grab her, so he wouldn't lose his balance on the floor like the cook did.

However, he also failed to save her. Something struck his hand to the side with enough force to get it jammed into the wall.

By this time, Brook had gotten shut into his room, as did Robin in hers.

Sanji, just before the door shut, had gotten so close to catching her. He had again lost his balance on the topsy turvy floor and almost snapped his ankle.

He would of definitely ignored the pain and kept going, but it was too late.

It was too late for both Robin and Brook.

The remaining members were nothing but annoyed with this unseen foe.

Now it wasn't the only problem.

As Franky pulled his hand out of the wall he noticed.

"Is it getting darker?" he asked.

The others now noticed it too.

The already dim light was fading out.

"It is getting darker!" Zoro almost roared in frustration, if it wasn't for his voice fading out.

"What's going on now?!" Usopp also tried to exclaim, but all their voices were getting fainter.

The light went completely out.

Now it was nothing but silent darkness.

But somewhere else, there was pure white.

Pure white for Nami and Chopper, at least.

They found themselves in a pure white room. All except for the picture that hung from the wall.

"What is it?" Chopper asked, still shaken up from what had happened to them.

Nami examined it, as if it was unclear at first.

"It's...a map," she concluded.

The picture was a map of sorts.

The majority of the paper was blank, but on one corner was a cluttered drawing of the town they were in.

Nami only knew this because of the title box beside the drawing read 'Mortis Dead' on it.

She looked it over and noticed a very faint line drawn above the town. It was leading to an even fainter drawing of a box reading 'Malum'.

The line and the box almost seemed like they were actually not just faint, fading in and out.

Nami couldn't tell if it was just her eyes playing tricks on her, though.

She studied the map more carefully before letting out an exaggerated sigh.

"If it wants us to go there, then why are we locked in this room?" she groaned.

The only door they could see was the one that they were pulled through, and of course, they already tried opening it.

Nami rubbed her forehead in aggravation.

"Urgh, what are we suppose to do?"


	3. Chapter 3 Dead Mortis Part Three

**Chapter 3: Obvious and Hidden**

**Dead Mortis Part 3**

Luffy found himself trapped in the dark void. He flailed his arms ahead of him trying to feel for his friends.

It just felt like, to him, nothing was there.

Nothing. Anywhere.

He even vainly tried to scream.

Nothing.

It was so blank, such a void, that even Luffy was starting to feel like he might have died.

Did his existence just vanish?

He could feel emotions creeping up on him that his body was not use to feeling.

That he usually would not allow himself to feel.

A lonely angry depression.

It was all around him trying to burrow into his mind. He placed his hands over his head, as if he was trying to block its path. He could almost sense its climax.

As soon as it felt like it was about to tear his mind open, it was gone.

The dim lights began to illuminate once again, and he could hear himself breathing. That; however, presented another problem.

His breathing was the only breathing he could hear.

He quickly looked all around him to discover that he was the only one left.

He was in exactly the same spot he was standing in, before it got dark.

Which he thought strange considering he was just flailing around in the darkness.

"Guys?! Hey! Where'd you all go? Zoro! Usopp! Franky! Sanji!" he called in hopes of a reply, but all he could hear was his own voice and it's echo. "HELLO?!"

Unaware to Luffy, the comrades he shouted for were in the same confusion.

Sanji found himself laying on his back on the twisting floor, just the way he was before the dark overcame them.

He startled a little, because he could of swore he was finally on flat ground, after feeling around in the dark.

Nonetheless, he looked over to see if his friends were just as confused. No one was there.

He was somewhat surprised by this, but didn't panic. He just quickly deducted that the 'ghost' must of taken them too.

"Shit...," he mumbled.

Franky was finding himself alone in the labyrinth, as well. Peering down the twisting hallway with no sign of Sanji, and then looking behind him with no sign of Luffy, Usopp, or Zoro.

The cyborg was a bit confused but wasn't all that surprised. He stood back a few steps to get a glance of all the hallways ahead of him.

"Super...," he not so enthusiastically huffed,"...pain in the ass."

Next was Usopp, who immediately started to panic again, after just nearly losing his wits in the dark.

He frantically looked back and forth.

"Oh great! Sure! Leave _me_ alone out here! I know the ghost couldn't of taken you guys!"

He stomped in defiance and denial that his friends were abducted,"Come out! This isn't a place to be playing that kind of joke!"

No response.

Usopp fell to his knees. "Jerks..."

Lastly, Zoro found himself where he started too. He was; however, facing the opposite direction. Must of been his horrible direction skills.

He stood motionless for a few seconds, before jolting and turning every which way to check his surroundings.

When he realized his comrades were gone, he pulled out his swords in case the danger was still there.

"Alright, 'Ghost', come at me!" he yelled. Nothing.

"What? Too afraid?" Zoro then tried to antagonize it, but again there was nothing. He eventually stood up straight and sheathed his swords. He was frustrated.

All of them stood there, unaware of the others that they couldn't see. How strange.

Nonetheless, it was time for them to look for their comrades, and in unison they spoke: "Where do I start?"

In a certain room, more words were etched into a wall.

**"The Dead Should Remain Dead"**

A certain skeleton read this too.

"Now that's just plain rude!" he scowled, even though a skeleton can't technically do that.

He remained a little peeved a bit longer, before noticing a window on the far side of the room.

"Hmm? I don't recall that being there before," he mumbled.

Brook slowly approached the window. He was leery of it.

Once he was close enough to examine it, he realized there was another room on the other side.

"How strange," he commented.

He now reached his hand out cautiously to touch the window with his boney index finger.

"Don't be a zombie window. Don't be a zombie window. Don't be a zombie window," he repeated over and over as he got closer to touching it.

Cautious,...but a very strange fear. His boney finger tap it, and to his relief, nothing happened. It was just an ordinary, though oddly placed, window.

Brook stepped back to examine the rest of the room. He realized now that there was also another door in there as well.

He stared at it for a moment, then switched back to the window. He gazed through the glass to get a better examination of the other room.

It was actually brighter in that room, despite having just appeared as dark or darker, when he first saw it.

The decor and layout of it was just about the same as the one he was in, only it had one door instead of two.

"Hmmm," he hummed.

He leaned back and looked at the extra door again. He wasn't sure what to do, so he at least decided to get a peek of what was on the other side of that door.

There was a growing feeling of anxiety as he approached it, of course.

He assumed it was just out of his own fears and pushed himself forward. He was just about to touch the doorknob, when he paused.

"Wait...," he seemed to be having an epiphany. The skeleton quickly spun around to look at the words etched in the wall again, then thought about the previous creepy writings.

"Maybe these things have meaning...," he said.

He tapped his forehead in thought. "Or the object has meaning," he pondered," I didn't feel scared of the window, when looking through it, but the door is quite daunting...No, wait. I can see through the window, so maybe it is just my own nervousness of not being about to see what's on the other side of the door."

He again began to reach for the doorknob, but the anxiety seemed to just pile on more and more.

The skeleton once again paused and looked back at the window. _'Though,...if it does have a meaning...' _He thought with hesitation.

He seemed to have another epiphany.

"That might be it!" he exclaimed,"...the window of opportunity?"

Brook walked back over the window now.

"So,...maybe I am suppose to go this way."

He now flinched a little.

"If I'm right,...I wonder what that one is suppose to mean."

He somewhat grumbled as he glanced back at the words he found rude earlier. He shook his head to break his focus from that and back to the window.

It wasn't a sliding window, so he'd have to break it.

"Alright, this feels like the right way to go so..."

He stood to where he could elbow the window, but when his arm was just about to hit it, he froze.

"Oh no, wait! What if I cut myself?...Oh, Yohohohoho! That's right, I don't have skin!"

He repeated what he was going to do, but once again, froze.

"But if this doesn't budge like the doors, then I might break a bone!" he worried.

"...But I can't just sit in this room..."

With that, he forced himself to stop worrying and slung his elbow towards the window.

The glass shattered right out.

"Thank goodness," Brook sighed with relief, very happy that his arm didn't break.

He stepped over into the other room and headed for its door.

As he approached _this_ one, he didn't feel any anxiety. It was a rather clear feeling.

He thought this to be a good thing and grasped the doorknob.

Not feeling threathened by this route, he opened the door to continue his part of the maze to find his friends.

A few minutes earlier, Robin had also found herself reading words etched into a wall.

**"Things Are Not As They Appear"**

"Is this a warning? Or a threat?" she calmly analyzed with her thumb placed to her chin.

The room she was in was rather innocent looking. If the lighting was better and the decor was a little less battered, it'd be quite comfy.

It wasn't like Brook's room. There was no window in this one at all.

However, there were two doors. There was the one she had been dragged through and one straight across the room from it.

Robin took a moment for thought.

_'So we're stuck in a labyrinth...To get through a maze, one usually needs clues and memorizing skills. I take it these are the clues...Though, if each one has a meaning...The first one told us to tour the house,...and implied we'd all die. So was it just bluntly threatening us? Warning us? Or do the words have a meaning within themselves? __**Our deaths will be more beautiful...,**__and those voices,...something whispered 'beautiful'. What could it mean? ...I'm honestly lost on that right now. __**Life is a Labyrinth...**__This could be symbolic. We did get thrown into a labyrinth right after though, so it could just of been a warning...I'm going to have to think on these, but I need to concentrate on finding the others right now.'_

She stared at the current words on the wall.

_'So...Things are not as they appear? I think I'll test this one out...'_ She studied both the doors in the room before coming to a conclusion.

_'If I apply this clue here...The door I was dragged through was locked, when I tried to open it back up. That would lead me to think that the only other exit, would be the only other door.' _

Robin actually smirked a little.

_'If things aren't as they appear, then I should try going back the way I came. It could be possible, though, that the doors are switched...So where would I go? And what if the door I came through is still locked. ...I suppose I'll just have to pick one' _

She decided to try the door opposite of the one that she had appeared to been dragged through.

It was unlocked, but the whole door itself might as well have not been there.

It only opened to reveal a very, very small closet.

Robin could touch every wall of it without stepping in. She half expected the walls to fall over revealing another room, but nothing happened. They were real walls.

"So I guess this means I do go back the way I came," she finally spoke aloud.

Robin walked over to the other door to see if it was still locked.

It was now unlocked, though it couldn't be the same door she came through.

On the other side was not the twisting hallway she had been pulled away from. It was a relatively normal hallway.

_'Well, I guess this is where that clue kicks in,...but now I wonder if it's suppose to help.' _

She felt a little lost, not knowing what door she should go through now.

Her eye was soon drawn to one. It was at the dead end of the hallway, but that is not the reason it caught her attention.

The door looked closed, at first glance, but a sharper eye could see what seemed like a thicker dark slit, between the door and the frame where it would latch.

It was as if it was ever so slightly cracked open.

She found herself drawn to it, and before she really realized it, she was already walking through it.

The door lead her into a storage room.

It was fairly large and had plenty of shelving along the walls, only to have everyone of them empty.

The creepiest part of the room, was the fact that it had chains suspended from the ceiling, along with meat locker hooks attached to them.

Robin stared at the items for a moment, then decided that she should head through the door across the room.

She was just about to touch the doorknob when she suddenly heard the chains rattling loudly.

Before she could even turn to see the cause, the chains had wrapped around her and she found herself quickly lifted off the ground.

Her brain didn't even have time to tell her body to react.

She felt tremendous pain surging all through her.

She had been impaled by the meat locker hooks and hung from them by her upper arms.

Robin gasped from the pain and tried to use her powers to free herself, only to have the invisible force attack her again.

It was like it was shoving her extra body parts back into her original body, keeping her from using them.

The more she resisted, the more the hooks damaged her.

Blood was pouring from the wounds and staining her body.

She soon gave up on the struggling, so she could try and think of a way out of this.

As she quieted down, she thought she could hear someone opening the door. Her eyes narrowed on the doorknob trying to see any indication of movement.

If the door did open, she was a little concerned whether it was going to be a friend or a foe.

Now at the same time, Brook was opening the door he felt confident with, and it had led him to the exact same storage room. He immediately gasped in shock.

"!...It's so dark!" he exclaimed in fear.

Apparently, that was the only major problem he saw.

Robin was not there to him.

He was looking right at the meat hooks, and that's all it was.

To Robin, no one had entered the door.

She didn't know whether to be relieved or angry, as she continued to dangle on the hooks in pain.

Brook began to walk on pass to the other door, but he couldn't help but feel like something was important about those hooks. He couldn't physically see anything, so he went on ahead through the maze, leaving Robin alone to the torture.


	4. Chapter 4 Malum Part One

**Chapter 4: Extended Labyrinth **

**Dead Mortis Part 4**

**Malum Part 1**

Nami fumbled through her backpack, having hopes of finding something to open the only door to the room with. Chopper watched as she dug around in her bag, and he wasn't quite sure what she was doing.

"Nami? What are you looking for? Maybe I have it in my backpack," he suggested.

He realized that Nami had just found what she was looking for, when she pulled a switchblade from her bag and smiled quite confidently.

It was slightly making the reindeer nervous.

He was just about to ask what she could possibly want with that switchblade, but Nami answered to his nervous expression before him having to say anything.

"Relax, Chopper, I'm not possessed and going to cut you," she sort of teased,"I'm just going to try and unlock the door with it."

She then opened the switchblade and walked to the door, placing the blade between the facing and the lock tongue.

Unfortunately, her moment was ruined by Chopper, when he quickly announced impending failure.

"That's not going to work," he stated to which Nami quickly snapped around.

"Why, not?!" she growled.

"Well...,for one, the lock is on our side anyway, and it won't budge. I kind of think that means this door is supernaturally stuck. And,...it opens inwards, so the knife trick won't work. You're a thief; You would know that."

He seemed to unwittingly insult Nami.

She bared her teeth and held up the switchblade.

"Don't get smart with the person holding the knife," she warned.

"I'm sorry!" Chopper fearfully apologized. He slammed himself up against the wall trying to escape the scary navigator.

By doing that, he accidentally caused a discovery.

The vibration from the collision caused part of the apparent 'wall' to open slightly in the middle.

Nami walked over to examine the slit and pushed a bit on it.

It revealed to actually _be_ a hidden door, showing a way out into a hallway.

Nami was relieved and worried, at the same time.

"I really wish the other door would open. We could just get back with the other guys and leave, but I guess we'll find a way around through here," she said.

Chopper took a look down the somewhat foreboding hallway and stepped a little closer to Nami.

"Do you really think it'll lead us back?" he asked. He was a little worried about the route himself.

"Just trust your navigator," she grinned, though one could tell, she was also not really wanting to go this way. Both of them sighed; They decided to go ahead and go on with it.

Meanwhile, somewhere else in the building, Luffy was darting his eyes from door to door. He was still in the same hallway he was before.

He looked like he was trying to judge which door he should go through, purely on instinct.

"Mmmmmmmrrrrrrrrrgggghhhh! TOO MANY OF THEM!" he shouted in annoyance,"Alright, you stupid ghost! I'll show you something that's going to terrify you."

He walked back to the door that lead them to the hallway in the first place.

"You can't contain or control a pirate," he smirked.

He wound up his arm ready to use his real strength to break the door apart.

He then punched the door incredibly hard, believing if he really focused on it, it'd actually break.

It, of course, didn't.

Instead, his fist pretty much just bounced off.

"I bet you think you're so clever," Luffy grumbled, not liking that he was repeatedly getting outpowered by doors.

He once again prepared to punch the door, and this time, he was going to put even more force behind it.

He slung his arm forward, and his fist sailed for the door at a powerful speed.

It collided again, but this time something different, and rather excruciating, happened.

As soon as Luffy's fist hit the door, he heard, not a sound of the door breaking, but the sound of something of his own hand.

Pain surged through it and up his arm, which actually made him cringe. His eyes were glued to his hand; He was trying to figure out what just happened.

It was as if it was stuck there. He could see blood starting to flow down the door and decided to finally move.

His hand was was stuck there.

He tugged a little and felt something slide on the inside of his hand.

As he tugged more, he realized what had happened.

The door had protruded a jagged spike.

It had met his fist on collision.

It tore through between the knuckles of his middle and ring finger, leaving a horribly gruesome split in the middle of his hand.

It seemed like it had also broken his, impossible to break, rubbery bones in his hand and wrist.

He tried to clench his hand in reaction to the pain, but that was a horrible decision. It provided nothing but more excruciating surges.

"Aaaaauugh," he tightened his jaw and glared at the door, blood gushing from his hand.

It had to be a good five minute stare down. Luffy finally took a couple of steps back.

He watched the spike retreat back into the door, and he then turned around.

Thinking for a moment, he began to slowly walk away.

His mind comprehended that this wasn't just some thrilling adventure island, and he needed to find his friends.

As he walk, he tore a bit of his shirt off to cover his wounded hand. Every slight touch to the wound caused horrible pain.

Luffy couldn't recall injuries hurting this much, even if his hand was pretty much vertically split in half.

He beared it and kept walking down the hallway, jiggling a door knob here and there. He had tried Brook's door, and it was still locked, so he proceeded on down.

His eyes once again darted from door to door as if using instinct.

When the hallways met a cross-way, he found himself looking down the 'twisted' one.

At Robin's door, specifically.

What would be the chances that _her's _would be unlocked.

His instincts were telling him to check, so he soon found himself with his intact hand on the doorknob.

It opened. At least his instincts were intact.

The room appeared to be the slightly battered, yet comfy. It was the room Robin had been in before she left it.

Luffy could see the whole room from where he stood, and there was no sign of his friend.

He also could see the other door in the room. The closet door.

Though, he wasn't aware of where that door lead.

Figuring that she must of went that way, he walked over to it.

"Robin?"

He opened the door.

He was quickly halted.

It was the small closet presented before him.

"Huh!?" he exclaimed,"What the?...Where did she go then? This could be the only other exit."

That's when he felt it.

It was like a sense of something rushing up on him from behind.

His reaction was stunted compared to it's speed, and quickly, he was shoved into the small quarters.

As soon as he was pushed in, the door slammed shut.

"HEY!" he shouted.

He managed to turn around in the dark, cramped space and fumble for the doorknob.

It was like it was erased. He couldn't find it.

"Let me out of here, you bastard!" he growled.

He accidentally banged his injured hand on the wall in frustration, which sent an unbearable serge through him.

He was trapped. He needed to find his friends, but he was trapped.

In Sanji's part of the maze, he found himself repeatedly kicking Robin's door. He was keeping good balance on the un-level floor, but the door wouldn't reward him.

"Robin-chan! If you can hear me, I'm going to rescue you!" he promised.

He kicked it a few more times, each being harder than the last. Once he realized it wasn't going to budge, he thought about something else.

"Robin! Stand back from the door!" he shouted hoping that she could hear him.

He ran to flat ground and started spinning rapidly.

The high speed friction on his leg began to make it glow like fire.

Once it was heated enough to sizzle, he ran back for Robin's door.

"Alright! Diable Jambe!" he roared, sending his foot towards the door.

What a failed effort.

His foot barely tapped it and he was shot back like a rocket.

It caused him to barrel slightly upwards through the door opposite to Robin's.

Sanji skidded on his back a good distance, as his leg lost it's heat.

"...Ooow...,"he mumbled,"What happened?"

He picked himself up to examine the situation.

Sure enough, he was rocketed like a rag doll into the room across from where he thought their archeologist still was.

This room was empty, except for Sanji himself, and what appeared to be a secretary type desk.

He stared at the dilapidated desk for a moment, before he realized there was something on it.

It looked like a key loop with many different keys on it.

"Yes! Please let my luck be this good!" he exclaimed. He grabbed them up and headed for Robin's door again.

Immediately, he began to use key after key, but so far, none of them seemed to fit.

"Come on! All these keys and not one is working!" he complained.

He was down to the last key and, 'Lo and Behold!', ...it didn't work.

"Damn it!" the cook fumed and stomped back to the room from which he got the keys.

He felt like kicking the hell out of the desk, but now there was something else that caught his eye.

A glowing message carved on the top. It read:

**"Looking For The Skeleton Key?" **

Sanji tilted his head a little as an arrow appeared above the message, and it pointed his eye to the wall.

He looked up to see what seemed like someone smashed an opening in the wall big enough for him to slip through.

_'I...didn't even notice that,'_ Sanji thought.

He cautiously peeked through the hole and then peeked back towards Robin's door across the hallway. He wagered that he most definitely needed to get the key.

"Robin-chwaaaan! I'll be back for you! Stay safe while I get the key!" he hollered and slipped on through the opening.

Now it was Franky's turn to figure out what to do. He had walked down the hallway that went straight up at the end and looked over it's design.

"Whoever made all these hallways, is a stranger carpenter than I am...," he commented and then began to smirk,"...but certainly not better."

He looked at the doors lined on the walls above.

"Wonder if they went all out with it," he openly thought. He shot his hand upwards to a door.

His arm stretched up on its chain and he grabbed a hold to a doorknob.

The door willingly opened for him.

"Alright! Let's have a look-see," the cyborg commanded himself; His chain pulled him up to the room.

He was slightly disappointed that the room was right-side-up.

He wanted to find it sideways, with the furniture impossibly fixed on the walls and things defying gravity, but it was just a regular room, aside from the door being horizontal.

The cyborg's eyes drifted over everything. It looked like a room for a child or possibly two children.

It was also quite refreshing. Nothing was torn or dirty, and it was well lit.

The air even seemed clear. The furniture looked quite innocent, too.

There was a little white tea table in the center of the room, with two little white chairs by it. There was also two little cozy beds near by, pushed together with a few cuddly toys piled across them.

Franky did see another door across the room, but that's not exactly what caught his attention now. He could see a small scribble on the wall next to the door.

He narrowed his eyes, but still couldn't make it out.

He could tell it was done by a child's crayon. He walked closer to see what was scribbled.

Somehow, it didn't seem as innocent as the rest of the room. In small writing it read:

_"Make It Stop" _

Franky had a slight upset feeling when he read it.

It was a little sad.

He shook his head of the negative feeling and opened the door that was next to the scribble.

Beyond it was a beautifully decorated balcony. He stepped out on it, but any viewing of the outside was still hindered by fog.

The cyborg took a moment to appreciate the structure of the beautiful balcony, then turned to head back in.

He stopped just before coming back off the balcony, when he immediately noticed something new in the room.

At the tea table, now seated another chair. A ragged rusty looking chair.

Franky only got a glimpse of it, before the balcony suddenly disappeared and he began to fall.

As he fell, his surroundings morphed into the hallway he was in before he entered the room. He hit the floor hard from the fast fall.

"Urgh! What the hell was all that about?!" the cyborg fussed, still lying on the ground.

Minutes before, Usopp was worrying about his own path. He was not excited about being alone and was paranoid about every door he glanced at.

He walked down the hall, mentally picking off each door with the same answer.

_"No, no, no..nooo," _he thought, not really wanting to go through any of them.

He eventually came to the cross-way of hallways.

"How am I suppose to pick?" he sighed.

He spent some time on thinking about which one was the least dangerous looking.

Each one was weird, and he definitely didn't want to try walking through ones that would make him dizzy or snap his ankle.

"Not only do I need to find the guys,...I don't even know what we are suppose to be looking for in this maze," he sighed even more, and as if on cue, a very loud bang was heard.

Usopp shrieked in terror, but quickly homed in on where the sound came from.

Brook's door.

The sniper turned around and studied it for a moment.

He thought he could see the door knob jiggle a little.

"Brook?" Usopp called,"...Can you hear me?!"

A softer knock was heard and Usopp took that as a 'yes'.

"Brook! I'll try and open the door!" he shouted and ran into it as a means to try and ram it open.

Stupid idea, as he only smashed himself on it with no success.

He twitched in pain and slid down it, grasping the doorknob as he did.

To his surprise, the door was unlocked the whole time.

"Huh? What the...it was already..?" he questioned. The sniper stood up and entered the room.

"Brook! Are you-," his hopes in finding his friend was crushed when he realized the only person in the room was himself.

He was in the same room Brook _had_ been in, but he wasn't aware that Brook had already left it minutes before.

The only difference from when Brook was in it, is the window leading to the other room. Brook had broke it to get to the other side, but to Usopp, it wasn't broken.

Usopp peered through it for a moment before he heard a noise from the door to his left. The door that Brook had refused to go through.

Seeing as the window was intact, Usopp thought maybe he should check to see if Brook had gone through that door.

During this happening, Zoro had already moved from his starting point and somehow ended up in the storage room that held Robin, though he was unaware of this.

He glanced at the meat hooks before walking on by them, about to leave. His reflex kept him from going; however, when he heard the sound of the meat hooks jingling.

The result of this reflex wouldn't prove to be good for Robin, though.

What was about to happen was somewhat the cause of Usopp, as he opened the door he thought Brook had gone through.

He was confronted by a solid black room instead.

The moment he saw this darkness, he felt tremendous fear and dread.

Every muscle in his body began to grow icy cold, and he felt as if he couldn't move.

Then, within the darkness, he saw two white eyes appear, and the sound of something exhaling for a long time.

His heart felt frozen, yet raced at the same time, as the sound grew louder into that of a screech.

When it couldn't possibly get any scarier for him, the thing started _moving towards_ him.

It was low to the ground. It apparently crawled.

One of its shadowy arms finally emerged, followed by its other one, pulling itself out of the complete darkness.

The creature itself, was still just as black as the room.

The thing was like a moving silhouette.

It looked almost feminine body wise, and it was dragging its legs, instead of standing up.

That only made it more horrifying to the person it was hunting down.

Usopp collapsed and tried to pull himself backwards, away from the advancing creature.

The silhouette continued to pull itself closer and closer to the sniper, all the while screeching and wailing, with its white eyes peering like a demon at him.

The sniper was practically crying now, as it was getting closer, faster than he could get away.

Then he realized he had cornered himself to it.

He couldn't escape. It reached out and snatched his leg.

An immediate burn raced through his skin as the creature gripped him, and as soon as it made contact, it was like the entire world collided with itself.

The window that Brook had passed through, broke just like how it did when the skeleton smashed it, and this wasn't the only result.

This sudden surge of the other Straw-Hat's 'worlds' colliding, is where Zoro's mishap comes in.

As he spun around to slice the potential danger behind him, he found himself cutting a gash right across Robin's abdomen.

As she gasped in pain, the swordsman stood back, completely shocked at what had just happened.

"Robin?!" he exclaimed, though his voice was not as loud as the screech of the creature attacking Usopp.

Everyone in the labyrinth could hear it from where they were at this moment. It's shrill piercing the very air that they breathed.

**ORIGINAL A/N: I'm going to try and lighten some of the confusion. Time wise. If anyone is wondering...Nami, Chopper, Brook, and Robin's part is happening pretty much at the same time. (Given that Nami and Chopper have a slight head-start, but once on the move, I'm going to say about the same time as Brook and Robin)**

**Luffy's and everyone else, is happening just a tad bit later than that. Keep in mind, I'm writing on this randomly,...so it is quite literally 'spur of the moment'.**

**So I will probably accidentally confuse you anyway . Also, OMG,...a lot of characters make it hard to cover their happenings! **

**Yes, also, I realize I skipped Brook in this chapter. Did it on purpose, his part is in the next chapter. Spur of the moment and planned! **

**AH-HA! ...I'm confused. **

**UPDATED A/N: I forgot to mention, this was intended to be pre-time skip. Though, we can all plug in their post-time skip selves and see how that works out. ...Probably not well. **


	5. Chapter 5 Malum Part Two

**Chapter 5: The Hero **

**Malum Part 2**

That piercing shrill echoed throughout the labyrinth. Each of the Straw-Hats stopped what they were doing and froze at the sound of that horrible screech.

Even Luffy could hear it, inside the dark confinements he was restrained to.

Sanji was squeezing himself through an area that looked like a place between walls, when he heard it.

"What in the hell?" he mumbled as he came to halt to look over his shoulder,"I...don't even want to know what that could be..."

"Eeeh!" Brook squeaked in fear. He cowered in his place, trying to cover the ears he didn't have. "I truly hope that isn't close!" he trembled, not wanting whatever it was near him.

Nami and Chopper also froze momentarily.

"Urgh!" Nami huffed in frustration,"Not again with these freaky noises!"

Zoro couldn't help but cringe to it, as well. He looked at the door that could lead to it, but quickly turned his attention on the injured Robin.

She was still dangling from the meat hooks, and blood was steadily pouring from its damages and Zoro's.

"Robin! I'll get you down, hold on!" Zoro gasped and then proceeded to cut the chains that held her. She would of hit the ground, but Zoro thankfully had time to catch her.

"Alright, don't lose all your blood," he somewhat joked,"We're going to go find Chopper, so just hang in there."

He shifted her onto is shoulder where he could carry her and have a hand free. Now he just needed to make up his mind on whether to go towards the screech, or away from it.

Franky immediately brought himself to his feet at the sound of the loud creature. It was definitely close, and he knew it.

"Again with these noises of yours?!" he mocked at the presumably "invisible" creature,"Just show yourself! I only want to deform your face!"

After a moment of trying to zero in on where exactly the screech was coming from, Franky actually picked off which room it was in.

Especially when he heard Usopp's terrified scream with it.

The cyborg threw himself onto the door, which flew open to reveal the creature still clinging to Usopp's leg.

"Long-nose!" Franky exclaimed at the sight.

"Franky!" Usopp broke from his terror long enough to become aware of the cyborg's presence.

"Get if off of me! Please!"

Franky immediately obliged as he aimed a 'Coup de Vent' at the silhouetted creature. He fired and it hit it with painful force.

This succeeded, as the creature dissolved itself into thin air, but as soon as it did, Franky and Usopp once again- could no longer see each other.

"Gah! Franky?!" Usopp realized it,"What happened? Where are you?"

Franky realized that he couldn't see Usopp either.

"Long-nose?! Hey, where are you?! Can you hear me?"

This, of course, affected the other two that finally had contact.

Robin found herself crashing to the floor as Zoro felt the grip he had, and the weight of her, disappear.

Robin partially lifted herself up and seemed a bit stunned by what happened.

"Zo- What...," she stumbled on her words.

_'As soon as that noise stopped,'_ she thought instead_,'He vanished...Could it be...that he was even really here? Or is that forsaken thing playing with me again?' _

Zoro, on the other hand, was confident that he had just had the real Robin in his grip.

"Ok! What the hell is really going on here?!" he snapped at this annoyance,"Stop with this crap already! Just give her back, and we'll purify your tormented little soul for you! Is that what you want, you moronic ghost?!"

Zoro focused on the door to the room that would lead to where Usopp and Franky are currently.

He decided to head for it, since it was the only spot he would probably find that 'moronic ghost' he wanted to strangle so bad.

With the noise now gone, Brook found the courage to move.

"Oh thank goodness! I don't think I could of out hummed that noise...," he wiped his boney forehead with relief,"I suppose I should keep going then."

The last part of his words, weren't as enthusiastic. He was already dreading this place enough.

Since he didn't have a clue as to where he really should be heading, he just went with whatever he felt right.

Before he even knew it, he found himself in the main entrance room.

The one they all started from, when they ended up getting chased in here by the zombies.

"Bah?! Huh? How'd I...?" Brook felt a bit confused but shrugged it off,"...Maybe I'm getting somewhere..."

He had entered the main room from the door that led to the assortment of hallways. The door that was opposite of Nami and Chopper's.

Speaking of the doors, the entrance door to the building was standing wide open.

This frightened Brook for moment, because the last time he saw it, there were zombies scratching on the other side.

It was vacant now.

To be sure, he leaned out the door for a quick look, and luckily no zombie was there to attack him.

He wondered for a moment if his comrades had gotten out and defeated the undead horde.

"Luffy-saaaaan?!" Brook called out the door, though keeping his hand on it, ready to run back inside and slam it shut at the slightest sign of any zombie.

He heard nothing but his own echo.

The skeleton was dreading having to search the whole building, but if it was to find his friends, he'd do anything.

However, he just wasn't seeing the point to this whole maze or having luck on how to work it.

He sighed and came all the way back inside. When he did, he noticed that the door to Nami and Chopper's room was cracked open.

"This is a turn around. First, all shut and locked. Now they are all open," he said, with a hint of relief.

He pushed the door open to the pure white room.

As soon as his foot touched the white floor, he felt a tiny, almost insignificant, serge go through him.

Like a cold chill.

"It's so bright in here. It could almost hurt my eyes! ...If I had any, Yohohoho!"

Nami and Chopper were currently walking down a hall, taking a quick look in each room before heading further down.

As Nami opened one door, Chopper would open another one down from her.

"Hey, Nami. You think this one will lead to a way out?" he asked.

She started to walk over towards him to take a look, but she jumped when she heard something crash down the hall behind them.

This also caused her to accidentally hit Chopper, who then skidded into the room he was examining.

"Oow!" he complained.

"Oh, I'm sorry, Chopper!" Nami kindly laughed,"I thought I heard something!"

"But you didn't have to be so jumpy," the reindeer replied, rubbing his little blue nose that had hit the floor.

Nami was about to go help the little guy up, but the door shut on her, separating the two.

"Chopper? What was that?! Open the door!" Nami, knowing full well by now that it wasn't Chopper that had shut it, started to panic.

If she didn't have good reason to then, she would now.

Another noise was heard down the hall way, and when she looked, it was the worst sight she could see.

Zombies.

The zombies had gotten in and made their way towards the girl.

She shrieked as soon as she saw their bloody twitching bodies stomping right to her.

She began to run, but the zombies were already upon her.

She was desperately dodging them as they swarmed around her, and they now were starting to block any means of escape.

She was knocked down and one of them must of snatched her, as she felt it grab her leg and quickly drag her out of the others' hungry claws.

She covered her head, like one would do in an earthquake, and screamed. She could feel the other zombies grabbing for her, but this particular one still had her in its own grip, dragging her quickly away from the other feeders.

It was going to have this kill to itself.

She was too weak to keep from becoming a refreshing meal to fight over and tear apart.

She was just about ready to give up from this terror, when she heard a door slam shut and the disgusting zombie noises muffled.

As she slowly opened an eye for a peek, she heard a very familiar voice from another, but vastly different, undead creature.

"That was so frighting! Nami-san, are you alright?!" it said.

Nami immediately jumped up.

"Brook! Oh my god! I never thought I could be this happy to see you!" she cheered and wrapped her arms around the blushing skeleton.

She quickly changed moods; however, and punched his boney arm.

"Why didn't you tell me it was you dragging me?!" she exclaimed.

"I'm sorry. It's just that, I wouldn't think the middle of a zombie crowd is a good conversation spot," he defended himself from her rant, which didn't work.

"Oh! Are you making fun of me now, too?!" she growled.

"What? No! I'm sorry!" he apologized, which she seemed to calm down for, but still glared at him.

"Ah! Chopper!" she suddenly remembered,"I hope he's okay!"

"Why? He wasn't out there was he?" Brook asked, now a little worried he didn't save their furry friend.

"No, we got separated. He's-," she stopped talking when she finally realized their surroundings.

On the back wall, was an exit door to the outside. By that door, was a map. Much like the one in the white room.

There was also a Den Den Mushi and a pair of binoculars setting on a small desk-table right next to the door.

"Brook! You have luck! First you find me, and now we might have the route to Malum!" she glee'd.

"Malum?" Brook repeated, completely lost.

"I saw that map, that you can see right there, back in the room where Chopper and I got locked into," she explained,"And it suggested that we have to go to Malum."

"Why? Couldn't it just be misleading us into more danger?" he asked.

Nami made an expression that read she was getting really tired of people questioning her today.

"I'm sorry," Brook apologized, yet again.

"I just have a gut feeling that we should go there," Nami replied in a huff.

She then decided to take the binoculars and look out the door's window with them.

After a bit of focusing the distance, she could see a large gate.

A sign was placed above the gate which, indeed, read: Malum.

"I knew it! It's Malum! I can see its entrance gate," she laughed in her triumph.

She studied it a little more and noticed there was a chain and pad lock holding the gate closed.

"Damn it," she now hissed.

"What is it, Nami-san?" Brook asked.

"It's got a lock on it," she pouted.

Brook suddenly reacted to the word 'lock' and started to fidget in one of his pockets.

"That reminds me," he said,"Nami-san, is it a key lock?"

With that, he pulled out of his pocket, a key. It looked vertically split in half, but a key nonetheless.

The skeleton found himself being hugged once again by the elated navigator.

"Brook, you are on a roll today!" she cheered for him again.

"I guess I need to have more of these days," he blushed.

Nami let him go and went back to looking through the binoculars.

"There's also another Den Den Mushi over there,...hmm,...I think we might have a clear shot, if we just-DAMN IT!" she suddenly shouted.

"What?" Brook jumped at the shout.

"...Bunch of zombies...," she whined.

"What?!" Brook startled again at the thought of it.

Outside, on the path they would be taking to Malum, were a bunch of idle zombies.

"Nooooo, why?!" Nami was once again back to pouting and shouting,"...Wait! Brook...I have an idea."

"Yes?" he questioned.

"...Ok...," she seemed a little hesitant,"...You're technically undead, right?"

"...You want me to go out there, don't you?" he picked up on it and seemed a little betrayed.

"Come on, Brook! If you're undead, then you're one of them," she tried to explain.

"Not to sound blunt with you, Nami-san, but I am NOT one of them," the skeleton defended his humanity.

"I didn't mean it like that! I meant you can slip by them!" she argued,"Look, just listen to me...I think you could get by them without being noticed. If you can! Then we can figure out the next part...If that key can in fact unlock that gate. If it does, then we need to figure out how to get the zombies out of my path. All of this trouble, there has to be something over there..."

Brook simply stared at her, as if she was babbling jibberish.

"Just! Come on!" she stomped her foot,"I'll give you another hug? Three hugs from me in a day...You think that'll ever happen again?"

"But,...what if the zombies bite me?" he worried.

Nami started shoving him to the door.

"You don't have flesh to bite!" she corrected him,"...Now come on. I'll talk to you through the Den Den Mushi, once you get over there."

Before Brook could really object, Nami pushed him out the door and shut it.

He now found himself completely opened for attack by a giant mob of zombies.

He stayed by the door, not wanting to move. Not at all.

"Brook!...Go out there or do something to see if they come after you," Nami ordered.

Brook looked back at her like she was just trying to get him killed.

"Oh, stop looking at me like that!" she yelled through the door's window,"I'm hopefully sure they won't!"

Brook gulped and stepped a little further out.

He was within feet of one of the zombies, and it somewhat acknowledged him, but it did nothing.

"Nami-san, you were right," he was relieved,"They don't seem to care...HOW RUDE!"

"Don't be mad about that!" Nami scolded, since it was a bit ridiculous to be mad for a zombie not eating you.

"Keep going!" she demanded.

Brook did keep going. Once he was comfortable with moving amongst the zombies, he decided to run, as to get it over with quicker.

He got to the gate rather fast with his speed.

Nami must of been watching through the binoculars, because the Den Den Mushi began ringing as soon as he got to the gate. He answered it.

"Now you see, Brook, I told you you'd make it!" Nami spoke through the snail.

"Yohohoho, I'm rather glad you were right," he replied.

"Yep, I usually am," the navigator answered proudly. "Ok, go ahead and see if the key works."

Within a few seconds Brook was back on the Den Den Mushi. "Nami-san,...Our luck ran out," he replied.

"Whaaa? Damn it! Of course 'half' a key wouldn't work...Eeergh...We were so-" Nami was cut off by a loud crashing noise on her side of the Den Den Mushi, which made her scream.

"Nami-san?! What happened?" Brook had heard it and was worried.

After a pause, Nami responded, but with an extra voice in the background.

"It's Sanji!" she explained in surprise, with her voice almost covered up by the ever so enthusiastic: "NAMI-SWAAAAAAAN!"

It was most definitely Sanji. He had kicked the door down and was happily surprised to find his beloved Nami.

"Sanji! You almost gave me a heart-attack!" Nami scolded him,"And be more quiet, you're gonna attract the zombies out there...Wait!...How did you even find me? And what about the zombies in the hall?"

"Oh, to be honest, I didn't know you were in here...I just saw the zombies crowding this door and figured something or someone must be in here...So I kicked their asses; I wanted to see," he explained.

"Good enough," Nami sighed, but smiled that more of her crew-mates were okay.

"Nami-san? What should we do now?" Brook's voice came back through the Den Den Mushi.

"Is that Brook?" Sanji asked.

"Yeah, I thought me and him had an awesome plan, but ...it's failing on us. I thought he had a key to the gate we need to go through, but it's a stupid half key and didn't work!" she explained in aggravation.

"Half key?" Sanji repeated,"...Like this?"

He pulled out the key that he had found.

"That's it!" she exclaimed,"Sanji-kun, you two must be super lucky today!"

"Awww, just when I'm with you, Nami-swan," Sanji blushed happily.

"Yeah, that must be it," she mumbled, then focused on the key matter.

"So do you think it'll work if those two keys were combined?" she questioned.

"It's possible, I guess," Sanji shrugged.

Nami thought on it for a moment, then decided to finally respond to Brook.

"Brook! I think you shou-" The reception suddenly dropped.

The Den Den Mushi on both sides shut off.

"Brook? Oh! What the hell?" Nami nearly slung the poor snail across the room,"I am so tired of this crap!"

Brook noticed his snail shut off too. "That...can't be good," he sighed.

"Sanji...I can't stand this anymore," Nami rubbed the sides of her head in extreme annoyance.

Sanji saw the frustration on the beauty, and he clearly wanted to hurry up and get her out of here.

He gazed out the window at the zombies before turning his attention back to Nami.

"Nami," Sanji spoke as he handed her the key's other half,"...When I tell you, you run. Get across as fast as you can. Just wait for my say."

"What?..."Nami didn't know what he was about to do.

That's when Sanji suddenly opened the door and ran out.

"SANJI! No! What are you doing?!" Nami shouted.

He ran around attracting as many of the zombies as he could, stomping a few of their faces in as he did.

It was too large a swarm to try and fight them all without getting a single scratch, so he continued to round them up as a distraction.

Once he got almost all of their attention on him, he shouted for Nami.

"Nami! Run! Get to Brook!" he yelled over the horde that was chasing him.

Nami didn't have time to think on much of anything and decided to follow through with Sanji's plan.

Brook soon saw Sanji running past collecting the zombies near the gate.

"Sanji-san!" Brook was frightened for the cook, and was about to try and help him, but was stopped by him.

"Nami has the key! Stay there and open the gate!" he ordered.

Though Brook wanted to help Sanji, he kept his attention on Nami. She was running as fast as she could to the skeleton.

As she neared, both she and Brook noticed a couple of straggling zombies that didn't immediately follow Sanji.

They now had their attention on the closest target, which was the navigator.

Brook decided to handle these. He lunged by her and defeated the them with his sword cane.

Nami finally made it to the gate, with Brook closely behind.

He was getting the zombies that lost interest in Sanji, away from her.

Once they had a good enough break, Brook handed his key to Nami.

She held the two pieces tight together and surprisingly managed to open the lock.

"Got it! Sanji come on!" Nami yelled.

Sanji was still being swarmed by the cannibal corpses.

"You two just get in there and close the gate! Brook make sure nothing happens to Nami in there! I'll make my way in once I get done with these ugly flesh eaters!" he called back, as he was currently being herded further away from them by the massive swarm.

They were blocking his immediate route to them.

"Just be careful, you idiot!" Nami shouted back, sounding worried about their irrational cook.

She and Brook closed themselves inside the gate. A small handful of zombies just quite didn't make it in time to snatch them.

Nami stared at the disgusting cannibals, while they vainly reached through the bars.

Ignoring them, she then she turned around to see this town she wanted to get to so badly.

"Brook...," she sighed, almost like she was regretting this decision,"...I'm sorry. I don't even know what we should do now..."


End file.
